1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the collection and entering of data associated with a survey or other data collection mechanism using a computer system.
2. Background Art
Data is sought and collected from different sources and used to, for example, assist in making economic, marketing, etc. decisions. The collected data may be used to supplement historical information with personal experiences and to identify behavioral patterns. For example, the United States government collects census data from households that may be used by governmental entities and community organizations to allocate funds, develop social programs as well as by the business sector to locate factories, shopping centers, etc. Surveys may also be conducted by businesses to determine consumers"" attitudes and behavior to assist in the research, development and marketing of products.
In a survey, data collection is typically conducted by posing a set of questions to a set of participants in person, over the phone or in writing, for example. The answers are typically recorded in written form and processed or analyzed in some manner. A survey designer typically designs the survey by first identifying the questions that are to be included in the survey and then the expected answers to the questions (e.g., free form text or a multiple choice selection). A standardized survey is printed that contains those questions previously determined by the designer. There is no convenient mechanism available to dynamically alter a survey, or create different versions of a survey.
It may be necessary to modify a survey, for example, to change an answer type for a question, insert or modify one or more questions, etc. Further, it may be desirable to use different versions of a survey for different groups or types of participants. For example, it may be desirable to use a portion of a standardized survey in combination with a customized survey directed to a specific type of participant. A different set of questions may be needed depending on, for example, a participant""s religion, education, etc. However, with the current approach to creating a survey, it is not possible to easily modify or customize a survey form for various participants to, for example, include different questions and type of answers, or to capture the data associated with the customized forms. There are currently no computerized survey systems that are able to accommodate different forms of a survey or different answer sets associated with the each survey form.
A survey system and method is described wherein multiple instances or versions of a survey may be defined and data from survey instances may be retained in a cohesive data, or knowledge, base. Each survey version may comprise different sets of questions and different types of answers to the questions.
A survey schema comprises survey elements that may be used to build different forms or versions of a survey (a survey instance). Examples of elements of a survey schema used in embodiments of the invention include: section, question group, question, answer, data object, insert, choice group, choice item, for example. A section may be used to group question groups, inserts and sections. An insert may be used to capture repeatable data. A question group may be used to group questions. An answer is associated with each question and may also be associated with an insert. Any combination of questions may be used with any combination of data types for answers to the questions.
According to one or more embodiments of the invention, an answer value may be stored as an attribute of an answer element or as attribute (or attributes) of another element associated with an answer element (e.g., a data object or answertext element). Examples of answer and data object types include text, boolean, date, location, movement, person and keyword. New answer types and data objects may be dynamically added to the survey schema. For example, currency and health types may be added to capture currency and health answers.
A survey instance may comprise, for example, some number of sections each of which may comprise some number of sections (or subsections), inserts and question groups. A question group may comprise questions. An existing survey instance may be dynamically modified by adding, deleting or modifying survey elements.
Elements may be reused to facilitate retrieval of information. For example, multiple instances of question in a reusable question group may be created with the same identifier. None or more instances of answer 110 may be related to a given one of the instances of question 108. All instances of an answer that are related to instances of a question may be retrieved using a single identifier value.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, a schema is used to create multiple survey instances. The schema and survey instances may be generated in a computer system implementing embodiments of the present invention. In one or more embodiments of the invention, a survey schema may be defined comprising one or more survey elements that may be used to define survey instances and capture survey data. Relationships between elements of a survey schema may be added, deleted or modified.
An answer type and/or data object may be added to, or modified in, a survey schema. For example, currency and health types may be added to capture currency and health answers. Question and answer elements include an attribute that identifies the answer type associated with each. In an embodiment of the invention, an answer type associated with question or answer may be changed by modifying an attribute of question or answer, respectively. Similarly, a data object that is associated with a question or answer element may be changed by modifying attribute values.
One or more graphical user interfaces is generated by computer programs that facilitate the creation of a survey schema and survey instance from the survey schema as well as capture survey responses. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are provided to define, or modify, survey instances and survey schema(s) as well as capture survey data.
A change to an element of a survey schema is reflected in a survey instance that includes the element. For example, if a question element is modified in a survey schema (e.g., the text of a question or the type of answer is changed), the modification is reflected in the survey instances that include that instance of the question element. The propagation of a modification made to a survey schema to a survey instance may be avoided by, for example, making modifications to an element (new or existing) that is not included in the survey instance. A new element may be with or without the use of an existing element in survey schema as a template.
Data may be captured for a survey instance using elements of a survey schema. For example, data may be captured using instances of answer, answertext, insert and data object. An instance of answer may be created to store an answer to an instance of question. In one or more embodiments of the invention, answer text may be stored in answer and/or answertext. A data object may be created to store all or a portion of an answer. If, for example, the answer is of type person, a person data object instance is created and its attributes are populated with the person""s information. In one or more embodiments of the invention, a relationship is created between an answer instance and the person data object instance.
In one or more embodiments of the invention, one data object may be related to another data object as part of an answer or otherwise. For example, an alias data object may be related to a person data object to store alias information (e.g., a nickname or other name) associated with a person.
Insert may be used to group answers to questions. For example, a participant may provide more than one set of answers to questions. Each set of answers may be associated with an instance of insert, for example.